IOC may set up Rs 30,000-cr refinery in Gujarat

The company’s existing infrastructure in the state suits its expansion plan.

State-run IndianOil Corpo-ration (IOC) may set up its next refinery, a 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) unit, on the western coast in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 30,000 crore.

According to a senior IOC official, the country's biggest oil refining and marketing company, which also had Maharashtra in mind, favoured Gujarat, given its crude oil and product pipeline infrastructure.

Raj Kumar Ghosh, director, refineries, IOC, had earlier said the proposed unit may also have a petrochemical plant along the lines of the Paradip refinery.

"We plan to double our crude refining installed capacity from 61.7 to 123 mtpa in the next decade. And given our existing pipeline infrastructure in Gujarat, it seems a good location for the new refinery,” said a senior IOC official. The modes of financing the project are being worked out, he said.

IOC' Koyali refinery in Gujarat has a capacity of 13.7 mtpa. The company operates a 1,870-km-long Salaya-Mathura pipeline from Salaya (near Vadinar) in Jamnagar district on the coast of Gujarat to bring crude oil to its refineries at Koyali, Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Panipat (Haryana).

At Vadinar, it has a vast crude oil tank farm of 13 tanks with a total capacity of 0.773 mtpa. It also has crude oil storage tank farm at Viramgam with a total capacity of 0.331 mtpa. Another storage tank farm at Chaksu has six tanks with a total capacity of 0.219 mtpa.

The 1,194-km long Mundra-Panipat pipeline transports crude oil from Mundra on the Gujarat coast to Haryana.

It has a 74-km long pipeline from Mundra to Kandla, which was hooked up to the existing system of Kandla-Panipat section of Kandla-Bhatinda Pipeline near Gandhidham.

IndianOil controls 10 of India’s 20 refineries with 34.8 per cent share of the national refining capacity. The company on its website lists out growth plan for its refineries with an outlay of Rs 55,000 crore for capacity augmentation, de-bottlenecking, bottom upgradation and quality upgradation. Major projects under implementation include a 15 mtpa grassroots refinery at Paradip, Orissa, Naphtha Cracker and Polymer Complex in Panipat.

The Panipat refinery's capacity would be expanded from 12 mtpa to 15 mtpa. Gujarat is also home to Reliance Industries' 1.24 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude processing capacity refinery at Jamnagar and Essar Energy's refinery at Vadinar with a capacity of 14-million tonnes. The refinery is being expanded to 20 mtpa by September 2012.